Top ten green cars

The Toyota Prius with CO2 emissions around the 90g/km mark is a great family saloon, prices start at £18,000 first launched in 1997 the Toyota Prius is the world’s first and bestselling commercial hybrid car.

The Honda Insight Hybrid is another family saloon with five doors and five seats, aims to be significantly cheaper than the Prius but the co2 levels are not as low as the new Toyota Prius, and prices start at £15,490 for the SE.

The Ford Ka ECOnetic would definitely make any top ten green car lists with co2 emissions of 112g/km this is as impressive as the successful Fiesta ECOnetic. Prices start at an estimated £8500.

The Toyota IQ, a car less than 3 metres long making the iQ the smallest four seater, emissions of 99g/km and capable of 65.7mpg. Not the lap of luxury but has to be in the top ten green car list.

The Honda CR-Z goes on sale in December with prices starting at an estimated £16,000 this is a sexy hybrid sports coupe a definite for the top ten green car list.

The MINI Cooper D 108bhp 1.6litre diesel, this model has CO2 emissions of 104 g/km and is capable of 72.4mpg. The engine also has an auto start-stop function that switches the engine off when the vehicle is stationary and in neutral this then engages the clutch to restart the engine. Prices begin at £14 420.

The Volkswagen Polo 1.4 Blue Motion was the first model launched under VW Blue Motion badge. Smaller than the Volkswagen Golf with no road tax to pay on this car due to the carbon emissions of only 99g/km. The car is capable of 0-62 mph in 12.8 seconds. Prices start at £12 120 a top ten green car winner.

The Volkswagen Golf Blue Motion TDI has CO2 emissions of 119g/km this is a medium size car that requires just 4.5 litres of fuel per 100 km, as with all the other blue motion range the emissions improvements have been achieved by the use of a recalibrated engine management system. Prices start at £15,565.

BMW 118d Saloon has CO2 emissions of 119 g/km, this is another family sized car, it was declared 2008 World Green Car so will be a top ten green car list contender. It achieves an impressive 0- 100 km/h in 8.9 seconds and prices start from £18 350.

The Skoda Fabia Greenline Estate has co2 emissions of 109g/km and Skoda claims that this family estate car has the best green credentials than any estate car available in the Fabia price range, the prices start at £12 140 for the estate and is capable of 69 mpg.

What about electric cars like the Tesla Roadster?
According to the Government's Scientific Adviser for Energy and Climate Change, electric vehicles can deliver transport at an energy cost
of roughly five times better than a baseline
fossil-fueled car, and significantly better than any hybrid cars. That means the CO2 footprint will be much smaller too. see www.withouthotair.com for details.